TNAG-0943-FCO40-1162-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1980 — Page 243

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Peking with further reports of China's optimism and cidence-building about the future of economic relations between Hong Kong and China. An article in the English-language South China Morning Post of

4 November 1977 reported that the delegation was told by Liao Chengzhi (Liao Ch'eng-chih) who later, in April 1978, became head of the Overseas Chinese

Affairs Office of the State Council that:-

"China would settle the Taiwan problem first

before it decides what to do with Hong Kong"

On 25 November the Asian Wall Street Journal

referred to the same visit and said that the

delegation was told to "work for the prosperity of Hong Kong" and that "those in Hong Kong now should be at ease, don't sell your property and go elsewheref.

43. In November, China Today, published by the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU), carried an account of an interview given by Wang Bingnan (Wang Ping-nan), the President of the Chinese Association for the Promotion of

International Friendship, to a SACU delegation visiting Peking. According to the report of his comments on Hong Kong, Wang specifically mentioned

the leased territories, but also seemed concerned to reassure the group that China was content to let the

matter rest:

"In principle, Hong Kong is part of China's

territory. It is not a colony: the situation

is different. There is a lease to hire Kowloon

for 99 years (1898-1997). When will we recover

Hong Kong? It is a question for the future not for the present."

44. Further press interest in Chinese attitudes towards the future of Hong Kong was aroused by a press conference given by the head of China Products Company (the main outlet for Chinese goods in Hong Kong), Zhang Zheng (Chang Cheng), at the opening of a large new branch of the company in Hong Kong.

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